Hidden Valley (D. SWING)

III. How A Man Should

"I wish I could've spent your birthday with you!"

The day after returning to Hidden Valley, Cynthia fell right into her old habits without missing a single beat. As previously stated, she talked to him almost everyday but that never beat being right next to him in person. Dalvin was pissed when he found out her flight came in while he was on his date. He'd been going on a lot of dates since Cynthia left, actually. It made her smile too. He was bored while she was gone, all of his weekend plans had gotten up and hopped on a plane to California for cheer camp. Well, he officially had the ability to get the girls he crushed on middle school, so, he utilized it. They used to dog Dalvin so hard, but Cynthia knew he was special. She knew puberty would bless him.

In fact, two out of three DeGrate brothers lucked up. Derek transformed too. His two front teeth were knocked out while fighting after school one day and he'd gotten dental reconstruction. Now, his top row of teeth are nearly perfect. Don had gone through puberty too and she thought he had just reached his peaking point. Hey, that's all on this single summer. She was more than satisfied with the way he looked before. None of her friends looked at him any kind of funny ways, yet everybody knew he was not ugly in any way. She was satisfied. Now, she comes back and everything changes. She feels the headaches coming right now.

"Man, if I knew you would be here, I woulda' just left the girl at home."

Cynthia laughs as she picks up a scrunched up straw wrapper to throw at Dalvin. "I called from the airport and told Derek to tell you that I'm on my way to board my flight, I'll be here in two hours."

"He didn't say anything, Cyn."

Dalvin's telling nothing but the truth, the whole truth. Dalvin asked everybody in the house to keep an ear out for the phone. He wanted to meet Cynthia at the airport, he really did. Derek answered the phone, told Cynthia he would inform Dalvin, and never did. He has no motive behind why he didn't deliver Dalvin's message. He's reached that caliber of being an asshole to which he no longer has to try. Everything he does comes as natural as it possibly can.

Cynthia randomly blurts, "I'm mad that Don looks completely different!"

"Why you thinking about Don," laughs Dalvin as slides to sit back down at his kitchen table. The DeGrate parents were out doing God knows what, leaving their children to curse, laugh, and gossip as loud as the wish. "What are you, ten again?"

She smacks her lips, wiggling around in her seat. "How do you know I was thinking about him?"

"I didn't but now I do," Dalvin smirks from his seat. Cynthia catapults another item in his direction, this time it is a random plastic spoon that sat on the table. He teases Cynthia, "I though incest was a' Alabama thing but I guess it works in the Carolinas too, huh?" Dalvin dodges the third item Cynthia throws his way, it was a ketchup packet. "No worries, we doin' this together. I guess I'm down with it too since..."

Turning red, Cynthia can only shake her head. "I figured as much," is all she can utter through her flushed face.

It took Dalvin a long time to figure out how Cynthia felt about Don the first summer they'd met, but it took Cynthia even longer to figure out how Dalvin felt about her. Once Dalvin realized it, he could not complain. It was practically his fault that Cynthia was as sprung for Don as she was. He felt like he fueled the fire.

Dalvin had laid eyes on Cynthia far before Don handed her that rag. He went home one particular talking to himself in the mirror, preparing how he'd approach her, when Don walked in on him. Don agreed to help him get the girl of his dreams the moment he introduced the two. The only detail Dalvin had told Don was the girl's name. There was no description besides her being the prettiest girl he's ever seen. When Don was talking to Cynthia, who he thought was only Javon's pretty sister, he was all fine and prepared to start crushing until she said her name. Cynthia; the exact name Dalvin could not stop uttering in the mirror. Then, to top it all off, he found out she was ten years old and not eleven like he'd thought. He knew she was a nice girl and since Cynthia was too young for him, he put forth his best foot to get her with his little brother. Sadly, Cynthia never looked at Dalvin the way she looked at Lil' Don.